Unconventional Wisdom from Dietitian Cassie

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Hey, it's JJ Virgin. And welcome to the JJ Virgin lifestyle show where I talk nutrition, exercise, mindset and lifestyle with some of the coolest people in the world. Plus, I give you tips and that you can put into fast action to uplevel your health so you can go out there and live that big life you're meant to live. Now, today's show is all about how to boost your metabolism. I know everybody always wants to know more about that. In fact, the official title is metabolism how to rev up your fat burning power. And in it, we're going to talk about one thing that you can add to your diet that's going to help with sugar cravings, help you burn more fat and have you have great, steady, sustained blood sugar. And it's a very specific food, not just a category. And I bet if you were going to guess three things right now, you wouldn't guess this one. So you're going to want to tune into it. But let me tell you first about our guest who's going to share that with you. It's Cassie, dietitian Cassie, and she is a registered dietitian. But what's so awesome is she's unconventional because, you know, I know you still hear from a lot of dietitians that you should be having juice and, you know, fat free yogurts with splenda and all sorts of crazy stuff. Well, there's a revolution happening in that world and one of the people leading it is dietitian Cassie. So she's going to talk about that and how she broke out of that mold. But her big place she's focused on, it really came from, her personal journey is in metabolism and where she realized early on that what she was learning in school was not helping her, it was making her worse. And now she's turned that around and she's created a program to help people lose fat fast. So she's been all over the place, CBS, ABC, Fox, CNN, Time, Parade, Cosmos, Self Shape, Women's Health, Paleo Magazine, HuffPo, all over the place talking about this. So I had to bring her here today to talk to you about it too. She's also got a great book, why Am I Still the Hidden Keys to Unlocking that Stubborn Weight Loss? Which was debuted number one bestseller internationally on Amazon. So I'm excited to share dietitian Cassi with you today. All right, so let's do it. Cassi, welcome to the show. I am so excited to talk with you today.

Thanks, jj. I'm pumped up to be here.

Well, this is a topic everyone always wants to know more about, but what I want to dive into first is one of the challenges out there in the world is there's kind of a great divide between dietitians and, say, nutritionists and nutrition experts, but not you. You are definitely one of the unconventional out there in the registered dietitian world. So tell us about that. How did you break out of that mold?

Yeah, well, what I practice and preach and know to be true now is much different than what I was taught in dietitian school. We learned that weight loss and metabolism is all just about food, and it's calories in and calories out. But now, because of my personal experience and battle with sugar addiction and my weight, which we can probably circle back to jj, I had a deep passion for helping people unlock these hidden barriers to being their most energetic, healthiest selves. And, jj, you used the word unconventional, and my approach is indeed unconventional, and that I challenge a lot of what we may know as truth. And the reason for that is because these supposed truths never worked for me, haven't worked for our clients, and frankly, a lot of them conflict with what the research studies are actually reporting. Yes, for sure.

Let's go back to yours, because you skirted around it, and I'm sure the minute you mentioned it, everyone's like, okay, I want to know, especially since I know you personally and you're a teeny little thing. So for you to hint that you have ever had a weight problem, it's hard to. It spins my. A bit. And you also mentioned a sugar addiction. So take us back to that dark place where you were at and then how you dug yourself out of it. What'd you learn?

Well, my wake up moment was the night I ate the entire container of my roommate's frosted sugar cookies, and I thought I'd sneak just one or two. And before I knew it, all 12 were gone. And, you know, I bring that up because that's the kind of embarrassment you never forget. When I had to shamefully fess up to her, I didn't feel like this was me, and yet it didn't even feel like a choice. And to make matters worse, I was in school to be a registered dietitian at the time, and I felt like a fraud. Like, I was living two lives. I was acing all my classes, and behind closed doors, I was really struggling. And to tell you the truth, jj, that container of cookies wasn't my only faulting point. I mean, there were hundreds of similar moments. I can't count the number of times I tried to start clean, you know, do a sugar detox and wind up in the same place in a mere number of days. And every single time, I'd be more angry at myself for being too weak to control it, breaking my promises, and not being able to stick to my decisions.

So.

So I thought maybe I was just flawed. And then years later, I realized I had what I now know is sugar addiction. And as you know, most people don't realize that sugar has the same effect on the brain as cocaine. And here's the catch, jj. I can be a rule breaker from time to time, but back then, man, I was following all of the rules of dieting and nutrition. I was doing everything, quote, unquote, right. I was even a fitness instructor. Running every morning and not eating meat because it was supposedly bad for me. Using margarine instead of butter, drinking soy milk, those things that we thought were healthy. Loading up on bread and pasta because they were fat free.

Yep.

And that's why you're hitting all the maps.

Frustrating to me. Yes, exactly. Like we've all been there. And that's what was so frustrating. It's because I was supposed to have it all together as a dietitian student, and I was supposedly doing all of the right things. So of course I felt like there was something wrong with me, like I was flawed. But really it was the advice I was given and what we were being taught in dietitian school that was flawed. So, ironically, this very eating regimen that I was learning in school at the time, the low fat, low calorie diet, brought me to my unhealthiest point and heaviest weight in my whole life. And that's when I really dug into the research on my own and discovered to my surprise, that I had to do the exact opposite of what I was learning in school. I learned how to get into the best shape of my life without counting calories, counting grams of fat, without even going to the gym much anymore. So really, what I did was I quit the low fat, low calorie dieting, and Began to address some of the underlying factors that were standing in the way of skyrocketing energy levels and fitting into my favorite pair of jeans again. And to my surprise, I actually stopped being consumed with thoughts of sugar. And sugar used to be on my mind all the time. So this is really the process I went through to feel like me again, to be in control again. And that's why it's my mission to help people do what I just did, to stop dieting and start truly living.

So let's go through, because you hit a bunch of them, the big misconceptions. And I'm sitting here going, yep, I ate fat free. Yep. I was eating, cut all the meat out of my diet, cut the fat out, went whole grain, did all the stuff, did soy. So what are, like, your top three ones that you saw people doing that you were doing that were hurting you?

I think the greatest myth of all, and probably because we've been told by dietitians even, is that, you know, eating too many calories or not burning enough of them is the problem. And that's just flat out not true. You know, we have to see the full picture of health and metabolism. There's so much misinformation out there about calorie counting, you know, based on outdated research contained in dusty old textbooks, and it's just not that simple, you know, and we've spent decades following low calorie, low fat diets while busting our tails at the gym, feeling like failures. And after all this, we're still not losing weight. So I think it's the low fat, low calorie myth. And then I also think the grains are still put on a pedestal to this day. And we know, you know, that all those processed foods turn into sugar in the body, and sugar is really the problem. And I think sugar is one of the biggest problems. And what's at the root of our weight gain?

Yeah, no question. Well, all the stuff you just mentioned is the stuff that makes me nuts. And 30 years ago, I started saying, oh, you know, it's not about the calories. And you would have thought that I said there was no Santa Claus. I mean, it was just like, what is she talking about? So I'm so glad there's like, people.

Still have that reaction sometimes.

I'm so glad you're out there in the dietitian army saying this stuff, because it's so critical to do that now. You know, we know that food is information. We know that you can't just go about counting calories. Actually, that A Snickers bar is different than broccoli. So if it's not that, then what is it?

Well, I find that there are several, and for our short interview time, I could share a few. So let's talk about stress, sleep, and exercise. I think those are the top three non food components. So when it comes to exercise, I'm a former marathon runner, and the reality is that running marathons never did me any good. And actually running miles and miles and exercising too much can be a reason we hold onto that last 15 or 20 pounds. And this ties right back into that calorie myth that burn more calories than you take in and you'll lose weight. That's what we've been told. And with that in mind, it's no wonder we spend hours upon hours running or ellipticaling to burn as many as we can. And the reality is, nowadays, people have more gym memberships than ever before, and we're also heavier than we've ever been. There hasn't been a single study showing that exercise alone causes significant weight loss and certainly not sustainable weight loss. There's so much more to it than that.

Well, and also we're doing the wrong type of exercise because I remember doing all that, that long cardio, and it just made me burn. My muscle, made me tired and hungry. So. Plus all that time. Oh, my gosh.

Exactly. We explain to our clients that one of the main reasons that burning all these calories through exercise can still result in not losing a pound or even cause you to gain weight is because of, you know, cortisol and inflammation. So too much of that exercise, that chronic exercise, that marathon running that I was doing, can be a stressor. And of course, stress causes your body to release the stress hormone cortisol, which spikes your blood sugar levels, and that sugar gets stored as fat. So that's a big part of it. And then the other part would be inflammation, the inflammation you create in your body from too much of that exercise, that chronic cardio and essentially inflammation is draining your metabolism because your body is focused on healing and putting out these fires all day long. And then you keep exercising and it keeps compounding, and your body is just constantly fighting fires inside of you.

It was interesting. When I was doing the Dr. Phil weight loss challenges, we had two gals who insisted on doing the LA Marathon. And I said, you know, this is going to get in the way of you trying to win this competition. It's going to make it harder for you to lose weight. And they wouldn't believe me. And they were the two that didn't win. They were the two that actually we didn't even feature because they didn't succeed at all. They couldn't lose weight. And these people were morbidly obese. They weren't just like 30 pounds overweight. Actually, they weren't morbidly at that point. They were about 60 pounds overweight, and it wouldn't budge. So it is really important for people to understand this stuff because I think we still get into this idea that in order to lose weight, it's all about the exercise. It's actually all about everything else. And exercise matters in the long term for you to look better naked and have a better metabolism. But in the short term, it's really food makes the bigger shift. So let's talk. You talk about boosting your metabolism, which I think is so critical, and you talk about all the different things that you can do to help unlock weight loss resistance. If you were going to give people one thing to do, what would it be?

I would say to eat more fat. And jj, I know you like to add before you take away. And that's what I love about adding fat, is it keeps you away from sugar and it keeps you full and helps you think more clearly, make better decisions. And of course, it supports your waistline, which kind of goes against everything we've been taught about weight loss. But the reality is we need healthy fat for our metabolism to work properly.

So there's a lot of difference in different fats. One of the other things I like to say is make an oil change. You know, treat your body as well as you treat your car. But let's go through just because I find in interviewing a lot of the experts, we all have our favorite go to fats. What are your favorite fats?

Well, I'm the dietitian who loves butter, and I know jj, you're the queen of food intolerance. And not everyone can tolerate butter, but if you can, butter is my favorite healthy fat. Other healthy fats, we're talking about avocado, coconut oil, coconut milk, olive oil, olives. And then if you don't have a food sensitivity, other options might be nuts, seeds, nut and seed butters, cheese, even heavy cream if you don't have a dairy intolerance. The key is finding these healthy fats that work for you. And when I'm talking about eating more of them, generally I tell people to start by adding just a couple tablespoons every time they eat. So that might be adding coconut milk to your smoothie or sliced avocado or olives to your salad or a huge spoonful of coconut oil or butter to your coffee.

And let's not forget butter can also. All you have to do if you have a dairy sensitivity is take out the butter and just have ghee, which is ghee. Yeah, it's like we just got, I just had a house guest, my house guest brought in and this is like you can tell what geeks we are, but I get as my house present from the house guests and this big container of this amazing grass fed pastured ghee, which to me is like taking a supplement. So I want you to think, you know, we really should. I love supplements, but it all starts with food is where you should be getting the majority of your nutrients anyway. And ghee, again, I love that you brought up butter because it is one of the most amazing health foods out there. And you know what? Broccoli and brussels sprouts are a great delivery system for ghee.

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And I think sometimes people don't realize how healthy fat can really boost metabolism and, and fat acts as a buffer for any of the sugar or carbohydrates you consume. So we tell our clients, when you consume fat, every time you eat, it actually slows down the absorption and assimilation of any sugar in your bloodstream, which promotes stable blood sugar levels, which is required for a boosted metabolism and weight loss because it allows your body to release that turbo fat burning hormone called glucagon. So there actually is science behind it. I think it can be tough to unbrainwash ourselves from. We think about fat and we think about fat on our body. But really, I wish sugar was called fat. Fat should be called energy or brain power or something.

Exactly. Because we know that sugar gives you fat and fat gives you energy. So dietary sugar gives you body fat, dietary fat gives you energy. So for people who want more from you, which is everyone, where do they go and what do you have available for people to dig into?

Oh, thank you. Dietitiancassy.com is where the party starts. And that's where you can apply to our virtual one on one coaching program. You can grab my free 5.5 metabolism boosters guide with my secret half tip. In that guide you can find my supplement line. There you can check out my best selling book which also has the rest of some of these keys to unlocking your metabolism's true power.

Alrighty, so that again is you can grab your metabolic booster metabolism booster guide if you go free. If you go to dietitiancassy.com and thank you so much, Cassie for for joining me. Now after the break, I'm going to be answering a listener's question. So stay with me.

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Welcome back. This is the time where I answer a listener's question. And today's question comes from Anna and she says, jj, how do I increase vitamin D levels if I'm off dairy and gluten? I just did the 25 hydroxy vitamin D test and I'm within normal range but lower than the 60 to 80 NGML range you've recommended. Okay, here's the deal. In lab tests, let's just forget about normal. Let's only go with ideal because remember, normal is based on the average population and the average population is not healthy. They're mainly sick. So we really want to look at optimizing vitamin D levels because vitamin D is critical for everything. It sits on the top of your whole hormone cascade, but especially immune system, brain health, gut health, mood, bone health. Okay? So it's super important. So ideally I like to see people in the 60 to 80 ngs per ML range. You take a 25 hydroxy vitamin D test to check this. Now I find I rarely ever I'm trying to think if I've ever seen someone in the normal range who wasn't supplementing because I can't think of anyone I ever have. Here's why we're avoiding the sun. We're using sunscreens which block vitamin D. And then we have some genetic snips where people can't actually make vitamin D. So the critical thing here is you will probably you want to get tested and then you want to supplement and retest to make sure that you're hitting the right number. And what I find with a lot of people, depending on how low they are to start, they'll need anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 IUs per day. And I recommend vitamin D3 taken with vitamin K because vitamin K and vitamin D work together to help support good calcium balance and to make sure calcium is going where it should be. So vitamin K is critical here as the partner to vitamin D. What I recommend is doing that for three months and retesting your levels and then you'll see what your normal dose should be. I find a lot of people need to be somewhere in the 2 to 5000 I use per day average, but might need to go up as high as 10,000 IU's. Again always with K in the short term to get their levels up. So that's the big important thing. Here is again, check your levels. This should be part of every doctor exam. You may need to dose more during the winter months if you live in a climate where there's not sunshine. So vitamin D is one of those things you probably will have to rotate if you live in most parts of the country except for say maybe Florida or Southern California. And then make sure that you're always taking your vitamin D with vitamin K just a little bit there because she said I don't eat dairy or gluten. Well vitamin D shouldn't have dairy or gluten. Ours are both dairy and gluten free. I know that some of the supplements out there might have some of that used in the processing, so always check on that. But again we don't use dairy or gluten and we also add vitamin K so these are critical factors to look for when choosing your supplement. Alright, if you'd like to submit a question just go to jjvirgin.com forward and you can leave a voicemail for me. I can't wait to hear from you. And one more way I'd love to hear from you. I would hugely appreciate it if you could jump on Stitcher or itunes and leave a review for me. It helps a bunch and be sure to subscribe and share the show with your friends. This is JJ Virgin signing off and reminding you that you are worthy Dare to live a life that matters. Toyota Thon is on. So stop by your local Toyota dealer and test drive a spacious grand Highlander or Ready for anything RAV4 with great financing and lease options available to qualified customers.

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